Praying for Our Representatives and World

 

 

On the evening when I read about Gabrielle Giffords being shot, I felt compelled to pray.  At first I wasn’t sure how to pray.  I knew I didn’t want to pray about specific human circumstances, so I started to think about God as Love.  And I instantly got a sense and a vision in my mind of Love being all – filling all space, the only Creator and manifested as Creation.  In this image all is happy, healthy and peaceful because all there is is Love.

 

Why is this image important?  If Love is all there is, then there is no hate.  If Love is all, then there is no cause of anything that is unlike Love.  Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of the universal science — Christian Science, teaches that sin and the sinner are both unreal.  (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 472)  God’s creation is entirely good, spiritual, loving, happy and eternal.  Where, then, is the sinner?  Where then is the source and cause for the incident?  No where.  And as this healing takes place in our thought, there is also healing and transformation in the physical.

 

In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Yancey illustrates how necessary grace and forgiveness are in our personal and nation-wide experience.  When a situation is redeemed or healed in our heart and thought, we can go on with new views, unity, and work for progress and blessings for everyone.  He depicted many nations who are in conflict today based on challenges centuries ago.  Many people today don’t even know why their nation is fighting, it’s simply because they always have.  He labels this as “ungrace”.  I love this term “ungrace” because it makes things so clear to me — if it’s not grace we are thinking and expressing, then it’s ungrace.  What a help this is in being proactive about healing our world and individual thoughts and hearts.

 

Eddy states, in her compilation of Miscellaneous Writings, “A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God.” (p. 354)

 

A few months ago, I wrote a blog about the Stanford University studies on the correlation between health and forgiveness.  I see it this way: we are a window for God’s light and love; if the window is filled with dirt – resentment, hate, revenge, fear – then we experience as much of this substantial, healing light which is the source of all health, happiness, and peace.

 

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” (Proverbs 17:22 NIV)  This healing spirit of Truth and Love has profound physical effects and certainly leads to transformation of mind, body, soul and the world.

 

 

For an additional article on this incident check out: “She does not have that permission from me” by John D. Clague.

 

Ever worry about what people will think?

 

Ever worry about what others will think?

 

This is something that I’ve dealt with for some time, but lately I feel I’m making progress with it.

 

In my high school years, I adopted the attitude “I don’t care what people think”.  This human attitude is not necessarily loving or spiritual.

 

Instead, I’ve begun to realize God (Spirit, Life, and Truth) is the only seer, thinker, doer, and be-er.

 

God is Love 24/7.  God is knowing love, thinking love, being love – all the time!

 

Spirit is the only cause and creator, and we reflect Him/Her.  This reflection of Spirit is called man (and woman and child).  So, we only have to think, feel and see what Spirit, Love, God is thinking, feeling, and seeing.  Just like an image in a mirror.

 

We don’t need to worry about human opinions.

 

For me, this really zaps the fear or worry about what others might be thinking.  Because if it’s not happening with God and His creation then it’s not happening in reality.

 

And who wants to be involved in unreality?

 

Spending time worrying or thinking about what others might be thinking is kind of like deciding to live in a dream instead of living awake.

 

Now when I’m in conversation with others or thinking about someone, I see what Love is seeing and knowing about them.  Focusing on the higher self in everyone frees me.  It denies that I, or anyone, has a “self” separate from God.

 

We get to see our real identity – in ourselves and everyone.  Though it may take some mental discipline at first, it gets easier with practice!

 

Have fun with it!  ❤

Our Relationship With God

Each of us has an unchanging, permanent relationship with God.  God loves us, nurtures and cares for us, and supplies all that we need.  The Bible says, “God is of purer eyes than to behold evil” (KJV, Heb 1:13).  God is pure Spirit, divine Love, who is all intelligence, goodness, and perfection.  God is ever-present and constant in our lives.  In fact, God is our life.  God is Life itself therefore Life is free, infinite, spontaneous, and not bogged down by worry and fear.

Generally, every evil suggestion that comes to our thought is a lie about our relationship with God.  And being aware, or conscious, of this relationship naturally destroys the lie, which dissipates fear with peace and love and an assured sense of harmony.

When we feel our relationship with God, we can’t feel anything else.  We only feel the love, peace, joy and dominion that God is imparting to us each moment.

Mary Baker Eddy describes God as Mother, and coined the phrase Father-Mother as describing God’s whole nature.  She recognized God as Love and thus described God as representing Mother Love that we each know and feel in our hearts.

By constantly communing with this Mother Love in our heart and thoughts throughout the day, we are able to shield any evil suggestion or fear of limitation, ill-health, or lack.

Our relationship with God becomes the most important thing to us, which follows Jesus command “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” (Mark 12:30).

The Book of Deuteronomy has many references to this:

“love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway” (Deut 11:1).

“love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days” (Deut 30:20).

“I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it” (Deut 30:16).

This is really a protection and blessing to us.  It keeps us safe because it guards our thought, our life, our motives, and the direction in which we walk.  It in turn blesses everyone around us.  “…All whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited” (Miscellany, Eddy, p. 210).

When we feel secure in our relationship with God we are kept safe, prosperous, fulfilled and satisfied.  Our relationships are effortless and harmonious because we have all the happiness and completeness we need in God.  Our bodies work more concordantly because we recognize God as Life and therefore the source and cause of our health.  And when we are on the pathway with Him/Her we can never be sick or lack what we need.  We have more fulfilling work because we are about our “Father’s business” (Luke 2:49) or our Mother’s business in this case – the business of loving and giving, of expressing our Mother Love.  “…Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matt 10:8).

So let’s start each day with our relationship to God – with our Mother Love – and see how that blesses our day and everyone around us.